Mexico dealt Costa Rica a damaging home defeat while Honduras and the US won on Saturday to shake up the standings in 2010 World Cup qualifying in North and Central America and the Caribbean.
Mexico more than met the challenge of taking on Costa Rica on the artificial pitch at notoriously hostile Saprissa Stadium, winning 3-0 with goals from Giovanni Dos Santos, Guillermo Franco and Andres Guardado.
It was Mexico’s first away win in the six-nation final round of qualifying, while Costa Rica lost for the first time at home and fell from first place to fourth.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Dos Santos’ long-range, left-footed blast put Mexico ahead in the 45th minute. He also played a key role in Mexico’s other two goals, bringing the ball into the area and passing to Franco, who fired home in the 61st minute, and delivering the ball to Guardado for a shot from short range in the 70th.
The victory gave Mexico 12 points, the same as Costa Rica but ahead on goal difference. They trail Honduras and the US, both on 13 points.
In San Pedro Sula, Honduras pummelled Trinidad and Tobago 4-1, while the US rallied to beat El Salvador 2-1 in Salt Lake City.
Carlos Pavon in the 19th and 27th minutes, Amado Guevara in the 61st and David Sauzo in the 82nd scored for Honduras, while Kerry Baptiste scored in the 85th for Trinidad and Tobago.
Clint Dempsey and Jozy Altidore scored first-half goals to lift the US to victory after Christian Castillo had given El Salvador a 1-0 lead in the 32nd minute.
But Dempsey equalized in the 41st when he headed in a free kick from Landon Donovan.
Donovan’s cross in first-half injury time also supplied Altidore, while Howard’s save of William Reyes’ point-blank shot in the 87th preserved the victory.
“The best part was the response when we went down,” US coach Bob Bradley said. “It’s never easy. You feel that pressure for a moment, but there was a real strong response from everybody on the field. That says a lot about what these guys are all about.”
Saturday’s defeats left Trinidad and Tobago and El Salvador with their hopes of qualifying all but extinguished.
Yu Yao-hsing on Tuesday nabbed Taiwan’s only goal in the final round of qualifiers for the 2027 AFC Asian Cup, as they fell 3-1 to Sri Lanka at Taipei Municipal Stadium. Early goals from Sri Lanka in the first half left Taiwan struggling to get on the board, and Christopher Tiao’s own goal at 53 minutes sealed the team’s fate in the third round of qualifiers. While acknowledging that the defeat, Taiwan’s sixth in Group D, was disappointing, head coach Matt Ross said he saw reasons to stay positive about the team’s development. “There were lots of positive signs in terms of the
“I don’t remember the moment, but ever since I was a kid, that’s the first thing I loved,” two-time NBA All-Star Isaiah Thomas said of his lifelong romance with basketball. However, that journey unfolded against the limitations of his size in a game where height often dictates opportunity — a reality he confronted throughout his career. At 175cm, Thomas is less than 2cm taller than the average Taiwanese adult male, while NBA players during his career stood at about 200cm on average. Compared with the NBA’s average career length of less than five years, Thomas’ 13-season career stands out as
INDIGESTION: Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup for a third consecutive time after a 4-1 defeat to Bosnia on penalties in a loss Gattuso said was ‘difficult to digest’ Coach Graham Arnold on Tuesday challenged his players to “shock the world” after Iraq became the 48th and final team to qualify for the FIFA World Cup with a nerve-shredding 2-1 win over Bolivia in an intercontinental playoff in Mexico, as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Turkey, the Czech Republic, Sweden and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) also secured their places at the finals. Iraq, whose preparations were disrupted by the war in the Middle East, sealed their first appearance at the finals in 40 years and are to play in Group I against France, Senegal and Norway. Goals from Ali al-Hamadi
Dakar and Rabat have longstanding ties, but relations have been strained since the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) final, which Senegal won in mid-January before being stripped of the title, which was transferred to Morocco. Now, the AFCON trophy is something of a thorn in the two countries’ sides. On Rue Mohamed V, the street where Moroccan vendors are based in the Senegalese capital, a police van is parked. “The police have been on high alert since the Confederation of African Football [CAF] decided to award the title to Morocco, but there have been no incidents,” a local resident said.
RSS